Rollus Crusader - Donation Repaint Idea

[delta_lima]

Hello team,

As those who know me already know, I love Crusaders. It also appears that a native FSX version is a long ways out. I like the Alphasim version (I should, since I beta'ed it! LOL) but the VC is old and in need of updating. I find the Rollus Crusader quite a good model (as a portover) - and for now, that's my prime Crusader mount. For those unfamiliar with the model - it's here: http://simviation.com/1/download-file?file=fsxcrusader2.zip&fileId=36243

A few repaints have emerged, but it looks to me the absence of a high-quality paint kit has barred more good paint artists to tackle it. Fair enough. I would love to see a couple of my favourite paint schemes - but am aware of how much work it would take to do. I have ideas, but no skills. But I believe in this enough to put a bit of money where my mouth is. So here's what I'm proposing to do - hope it's "win-win" for all parties.

I'm prepared to front $40. I'm proposing the split to be $20 to be an SOH donation and the the other $20 for the repainter's own pocket money, and/or for their charity of choice. If a good repaint kit and say, 2 schemes comes out of it, I'd be thrilled. I'd hope the paint kit could then be made available to other repainters, to aid them in doing other repaints. This way, we can hopefully make it worth someone's time to overcome the big hump-the paint kit. If it takes off, I'd consider kicking in a further $40 for a few more schemes.

The idea here is not to create a repaint-for-hire business model - just a simple incentive to recognize

1) there's a really good model here, and it would give many people lots of enjoyment if painted to a higher quality level - but there's a some work to be done, and the time to do it is worth something - at least to me.
2) SOH is a good cause, and doubtlessly our repainters also have causes dear to their hearts - this is my way of saying thanks to them and those causes.


So, if any of you repainters are interested, PM me. Whomever accepts first, I'll either send you your contribution right away (by Paypal), or pay your charity directly - your choice. Unless you request, I'll keep your charity confidential. I've already fronted the initial $20 donation to SOH to kick it off.


If anyone else likes the idea and would like to contribute - great - totally up to you - the more money we can raise for SOH the better.

Thanks for considering - let's see where this goes ... :icon29:

DL

[delta_lima]

No interest in improving the so-far best stop-gap Crusader for FSX? That's a bit surprising ...

If I need to revisit the contribution, I'm open to it - just hoping for some feedback on whether folks think there is value in a a re-do of the base textures to encourage a few more repaints.

I know there are a lot of recent hot FSX models that everyone's interested in - but Rollus' model has "good bones" for a lot of potential repaints spanning the many guises this legendary beauty wore over her 4 decades of active service.

thanks,

DL

[hschuit]

The lack of enthousiasm might be related to the fact that the FS9 model specular/specularity does not work in FSX. The only parts that do have "shine" in FSX are the exhaust and some decals. I tried to fix this with the MDLMat tool but my efforts were fruitless. Whatever you paint, it will always look flat and dull in FSX. Which is a pity really because it is a very good model. So, I for one enjoy it more in FS9.

[delta_lima]

Hello H - thanks for piping in.

Interesting feedback. For me, at least, using Shade, the stock repaints look pretty good - at least in "depth". Panel lines could be a bit crisper - but I am very happy with the repaints that Rollus did. Ironically, the afterburner cans are a bit unrealistically too shiny - they would have been far more worn. Here's the model in my sim:


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I figured that other repaints, even if they had this level of shine/material limitations, might give this model lots of life yet - hence the idea for creating a paint kit. The nice thing is that unlike the Alphasim model, where the FS9 trick of the alpha texture and tweaked mdl made the unarmed versions possible, in this model, using the Drone model allows for unarmed models. Obviously not an RF-G, but gives you flexibility from using the Bullpup armed model, which was a bizarre and rarely used example in real life.
Anyway - if this does nothing more than to raise the awareness of a pretty decent portover, then I'm fine with that ... :wavey:

DL

PS/Edit: the only drawback to using the Drone model for other paints (as you see here, I used it for both the USN and USMC paints) is you get drone model's control antenna (behind the canopy) showing up untextured.